This book argues for a major reconsideration of Plato as a rhetorical theorist and for a radical reframing of the relationship of rhetoric and philosophy. In the Republic, the failures of normal ...
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This book argues for a major reconsideration of Plato as a rhetorical theorist and for a radical reframing of the relationship of rhetoric and philosophy. In the Republic, the failures of normal democratic discourse and of Socratic elenchic discourse (a discourse based on refutation) to defend justice, a foundational value for a democracy, produce a crisis that is both rhetorical and philosophical. The dialogue represents the crisis over the absence of a persuasive defense of justice as a situation beyond the scope of normal rhetorical practice and one that requires philosophy as a response to a world that is unjust and likely to remain so. In response to this crisis Plato develops a complex theory of persuasion as an act of constitution. This innovative philosophic rhetoric responds to the contingency and temporality that pose a continual threat to any political order, and especially to democracy. To develop a philosophical discourse that is politically effective and can speak to a non-philosophic audience, Plato appropriates literature and uses it rhetorically to reconstitute a citizenry so that they value justice. In this turn to literature as a rhetorical practice, the Republic becomes Plato’s democratic epic poem in which he represents mimetically the heroism of Socrates and his interlocutors as they pursue a revolutionary political discourse that can provide a genuine defense of justice.Less

The Rhetoric of Plato'S Republic : Democracy and the Philosophical Problem of Persuasion

James L. Kastely

Published in print: 2015-08-25

This book argues for a major reconsideration of Plato as a rhetorical theorist and for a radical reframing of the relationship of rhetoric and philosophy. In the Republic, the failures of normal democratic discourse and of Socratic elenchic discourse (a discourse based on refutation) to defend justice, a foundational value for a democracy, produce a crisis that is both rhetorical and philosophical. The dialogue represents the crisis over the absence of a persuasive defense of justice as a situation beyond the scope of normal rhetorical practice and one that requires philosophy as a response to a world that is unjust and likely to remain so. In response to this crisis Plato develops a complex theory of persuasion as an act of constitution. This innovative philosophic rhetoric responds to the contingency and temporality that pose a continual threat to any political order, and especially to democracy. To develop a philosophical discourse that is politically effective and can speak to a non-philosophic audience, Plato appropriates literature and uses it rhetorically to reconstitute a citizenry so that they value justice. In this turn to literature as a rhetorical practice, the Republic becomes Plato’s democratic epic poem in which he represents mimetically the heroism of Socrates and his interlocutors as they pursue a revolutionary political discourse that can provide a genuine defense of justice.

Since antiquity, philosophy and rhetoric have traditionally been cast as rivals, with the former often lauded as a search for logical truth and the latter usually disparaged as empty speech. But in ...
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Since antiquity, philosophy and rhetoric have traditionally been cast as rivals, with the former often lauded as a search for logical truth and the latter usually disparaged as empty speech. But in this erudite intellectual history, the book stakes out a claim for rhetoric as the more productive form of inquiry. It views rhetoric through the lens of modality, arguing that rhetoric's guiding interest in what is possible—as opposed to philosophy's concern with what is necessary—makes it an ideal tool for understanding politics. Through innovative readings of Thomas Hobbes and Giovanni Battista Vico, the book reexamines rhetoric's role in the history of modernity and makes fascinating connections between thinkers from the classical, early modern, and modern periods. From there it turns to Walter Benjamin, reclaiming him as an exemplar of modernist rhetoric and a central figure in the long history of the form. Persuasive and perceptive, this book provides a rewriting of the history of rhetoric and a heady examination of the motives, issues, and flaws of contemporary inquiry.Less

Rhetoric, Modality, Modernity

Nancy S. Struever

Published in print: 2009-11-15

Since antiquity, philosophy and rhetoric have traditionally been cast as rivals, with the former often lauded as a search for logical truth and the latter usually disparaged as empty speech. But in this erudite intellectual history, the book stakes out a claim for rhetoric as the more productive form of inquiry. It views rhetoric through the lens of modality, arguing that rhetoric's guiding interest in what is possible—as opposed to philosophy's concern with what is necessary—makes it an ideal tool for understanding politics. Through innovative readings of Thomas Hobbes and Giovanni Battista Vico, the book reexamines rhetoric's role in the history of modernity and makes fascinating connections between thinkers from the classical, early modern, and modern periods. From there it turns to Walter Benjamin, reclaiming him as an exemplar of modernist rhetoric and a central figure in the long history of the form. Persuasive and perceptive, this book provides a rewriting of the history of rhetoric and a heady examination of the motives, issues, and flaws of contemporary inquiry.

Between present and past, visible and invisible, and sensation and idea, there is resonance—so philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty argued and so this book explores. Holding the poetry of Stéphane ...
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Between present and past, visible and invisible, and sensation and idea, there is resonance—so philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty argued and so this book explores. Holding the poetry of Stéphane Mallarmé, the paintings of Paul Cézanne, the prose of Marcel Proust, and the music of Claude Debussy under Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological light, it offers interpretations of some of these artists’ masterworks, in turn articulating a new perspective on Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy. More than merely recovering Merleau-Ponty’s thought, the text thinks according to it. First examining these artists in relation to noncoincidence—as silence in poetry, depth in painting, memory in literature, and rhythm in music—it moves through an array of their artworks toward some of Merleau-Ponty’s most exciting themes: our bodily relationship to the world and the dynamic process of expression. The book closes with an examination of synesthesia as an intertwining of internal and external realms and a call, finally, for philosophical inquiry as a mode of artistic expression. Structured like a piece of music itself, the book offers contexts in which to approach art, philosophy, and the resonance between them.Less

The Rhythm of Thought : Art, Literature, and Music after Merleau-Ponty

Jessica Wiskus

Published in print: 2013-06-01

Between present and past, visible and invisible, and sensation and idea, there is resonance—so philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty argued and so this book explores. Holding the poetry of Stéphane Mallarmé, the paintings of Paul Cézanne, the prose of Marcel Proust, and the music of Claude Debussy under Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological light, it offers interpretations of some of these artists’ masterworks, in turn articulating a new perspective on Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy. More than merely recovering Merleau-Ponty’s thought, the text thinks according to it. First examining these artists in relation to noncoincidence—as silence in poetry, depth in painting, memory in literature, and rhythm in music—it moves through an array of their artworks toward some of Merleau-Ponty’s most exciting themes: our bodily relationship to the world and the dynamic process of expression. The book closes with an examination of synesthesia as an intertwining of internal and external realms and a call, finally, for philosophical inquiry as a mode of artistic expression. Structured like a piece of music itself, the book offers contexts in which to approach art, philosophy, and the resonance between them.

On his death in 2007, Richard Rorty was heralded by the New York Times as “one of the world's most influential contemporary thinkers.” Controversial on the left and the right for his critiques of ...
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On his death in 2007, Richard Rorty was heralded by the New York Times as “one of the world's most influential contemporary thinkers.” Controversial on the left and the right for his critiques of objectivity and political radicalism, Rorty experienced a renown denied to all but a handful of living philosophers. This biography explores the path of his thought over the decades in order to trace the intellectual and professional journey that led him to that prominence. The child of a pair of leftist writers who worried that their precocious son “wasn't rebellious enough,” Rorty enrolled at the University of Chicago at the age of fifteen. There he came under the tutelage of polymath Richard McKeon, whose catholic approach to philosophical systems would profoundly influence Rorty's own thought. Doctoral work at Yale University led to Rorty's landing a job at Princeton University, where his colleagues were primarily analytic philosophers. With a series of publications in the 1960s, he quickly established himself as a strong thinker in that tradition—but, by the late 1970s, had eschewed the idea of objective truth altogether, urging philosophers to take a “relaxed attitude” toward the question of logical rigor. Drawing on the pragmatism of John Dewey, Rorty argued that philosophers should instead open themselves up to multiple methods of thought and sources of knowledge—an approach that would culminate in the publication of Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, one of the most seminal and controversial philosophical works of our time.Less

Richard Rorty : The Making of an American Philosopher

Neil Gross

Published in print: 2008-05-15

On his death in 2007, Richard Rorty was heralded by the New York Times as “one of the world's most influential contemporary thinkers.” Controversial on the left and the right for his critiques of objectivity and political radicalism, Rorty experienced a renown denied to all but a handful of living philosophers. This biography explores the path of his thought over the decades in order to trace the intellectual and professional journey that led him to that prominence. The child of a pair of leftist writers who worried that their precocious son “wasn't rebellious enough,” Rorty enrolled at the University of Chicago at the age of fifteen. There he came under the tutelage of polymath Richard McKeon, whose catholic approach to philosophical systems would profoundly influence Rorty's own thought. Doctoral work at Yale University led to Rorty's landing a job at Princeton University, where his colleagues were primarily analytic philosophers. With a series of publications in the 1960s, he quickly established himself as a strong thinker in that tradition—but, by the late 1970s, had eschewed the idea of objective truth altogether, urging philosophers to take a “relaxed attitude” toward the question of logical rigor. Drawing on the pragmatism of John Dewey, Rorty argued that philosophers should instead open themselves up to multiple methods of thought and sources of knowledge—an approach that would culminate in the publication of Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, one of the most seminal and controversial philosophical works of our time.

While the notion of the absolute is most often identified with Hegel’s philosophical system, The Romantic Absolute explicates the significance of the absolute in the epistemology and metaphysics of ...
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While the notion of the absolute is most often identified with Hegel’s philosophical system, The Romantic Absolute explicates the significance of the absolute in the epistemology and metaphysics of romantic thinkers between Kant and Hegel, and investigates the ways in which three major figures of philosophical romanticism--Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis), Friedrich Schlegel and Friedrich Schelling--sought to articulate a cogent conception of the absolute. The Romantic Absolute argues that for the romantics, the absolute was neither a solely epistemological nor a solely metaphysical idea, but encompassed both epistemology and metaphysics, and can thus only be understood from both perspectives. The romantics insisted that the absolute cannot be reduced to either being or knowing, because as absolute, it must underlie both. In turn, precisely because the absolute is the ground of being and knowing, the romantics concluded that it must be inherently relational. This relational conception of the absolute, i.e., of the absolute as the mediation of being and knowing, or as the realization of the infinite in the finite, is the most complex and innovative aspect of early romantic philosophy. In significant ways, The Romantic Absolute departs from the widespread view of romanticism as a skeptical movement that anticipates post-structuralism. By elaborating the distinctive character of the romantic conception of the absolute, The Romantic Absolute sheds new light on philosophical romanticism, and argues that in romantic thought, we find one of the most rigorous attempts to grasp the relation between mind and nature in a coherent, but non-reductive way.Less

The Romantic Absolute : Being and Knowing in Early German Romantic Philosophy, 1795-1804

Dalia Nassar

Published in print: 2013-12-23

While the notion of the absolute is most often identified with Hegel’s philosophical system, The Romantic Absolute explicates the significance of the absolute in the epistemology and metaphysics of romantic thinkers between Kant and Hegel, and investigates the ways in which three major figures of philosophical romanticism--Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis), Friedrich Schlegel and Friedrich Schelling--sought to articulate a cogent conception of the absolute. The Romantic Absolute argues that for the romantics, the absolute was neither a solely epistemological nor a solely metaphysical idea, but encompassed both epistemology and metaphysics, and can thus only be understood from both perspectives. The romantics insisted that the absolute cannot be reduced to either being or knowing, because as absolute, it must underlie both. In turn, precisely because the absolute is the ground of being and knowing, the romantics concluded that it must be inherently relational. This relational conception of the absolute, i.e., of the absolute as the mediation of being and knowing, or as the realization of the infinite in the finite, is the most complex and innovative aspect of early romantic philosophy. In significant ways, The Romantic Absolute departs from the widespread view of romanticism as a skeptical movement that anticipates post-structuralism. By elaborating the distinctive character of the romantic conception of the absolute, The Romantic Absolute sheds new light on philosophical romanticism, and argues that in romantic thought, we find one of the most rigorous attempts to grasp the relation between mind and nature in a coherent, but non-reductive way.

Sartre and Foucault were two of the most prominent and at times mutually antagonistic philosophical figures of the twentieth century. And nowhere are the antithetical natures of their existentialist ...
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Sartre and Foucault were two of the most prominent and at times mutually antagonistic philosophical figures of the twentieth century. And nowhere are the antithetical natures of their existentialist and poststructuralist philosophies more apparent than in their disparate approaches to historical understanding. In Volume One of this two-volume study, a reconstruction of Sartrean historical theory was carried out. This second volume offers a comprehensive and critical reading of the Foucauldian counterpoint. A history, theorized Foucault, should be a kind of map, a comprehensive charting of structural transformations and displacements over time. Contrary to other Foucault scholars, the text here proposes an “axial” rather than a developmental reading of Foucault's work. This allows aspects of Foucault's famous triad of knowledge, power, and the subject to emerge in each of his major works. This book maps existentialist categories across Foucault's “quadrilateral,” the model that Foucault proposes as defining modernist conceptions of knowledge. At stake is the degree to which Sartre's thought is fully captured by this mapping, whether he was, as Foucault claimed, “a man of the nineteenth century trying to think in the twentieth.”Less

Sartre, Foucault, and Historical Reason : A Poststructuralist Mapping of History

Thomas R. Flynn

Published in print: 2005-02-15

Sartre and Foucault were two of the most prominent and at times mutually antagonistic philosophical figures of the twentieth century. And nowhere are the antithetical natures of their existentialist and poststructuralist philosophies more apparent than in their disparate approaches to historical understanding. In Volume One of this two-volume study, a reconstruction of Sartrean historical theory was carried out. This second volume offers a comprehensive and critical reading of the Foucauldian counterpoint. A history, theorized Foucault, should be a kind of map, a comprehensive charting of structural transformations and displacements over time. Contrary to other Foucault scholars, the text here proposes an “axial” rather than a developmental reading of Foucault's work. This allows aspects of Foucault's famous triad of knowledge, power, and the subject to emerge in each of his major works. This book maps existentialist categories across Foucault's “quadrilateral,” the model that Foucault proposes as defining modernist conceptions of knowledge. At stake is the degree to which Sartre's thought is fully captured by this mapping, whether he was, as Foucault claimed, “a man of the nineteenth century trying to think in the twentieth.”

Computer simulation was first pioneered as a scientific tool in meteorology and nuclear physics in the period following World War II, but it has grown rapidly to become indispensible in a wide ...
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Computer simulation was first pioneered as a scientific tool in meteorology and nuclear physics in the period following World War II, but it has grown rapidly to become indispensible in a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including astrophysics, high-energy physics, climate science, engineering, ecology, and economics. Digital computer simulation helps study phenomena of great complexity, but how much do we know about the limits and possibilities of this new scientific practice? How do simulations compare to traditional experiments? And are they reliable? This book seeks to answer these questions. Scrutinizing these issues with a philosophical lens, it explores the impact of simulation on such issues as the nature of scientific evidence; the role of values in science; the nature and role of fictions in science; and the relationship between simulation and experiment, theories and data, and theories at different levels of description.Less

Science in the Age of Computer Simulation

Eric Winsberg

Published in print: 2010-10-30

Computer simulation was first pioneered as a scientific tool in meteorology and nuclear physics in the period following World War II, but it has grown rapidly to become indispensible in a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including astrophysics, high-energy physics, climate science, engineering, ecology, and economics. Digital computer simulation helps study phenomena of great complexity, but how much do we know about the limits and possibilities of this new scientific practice? How do simulations compare to traditional experiments? And are they reliable? This book seeks to answer these questions. Scrutinizing these issues with a philosophical lens, it explores the impact of simulation on such issues as the nature of scientific evidence; the role of values in science; the nature and role of fictions in science; and the relationship between simulation and experiment, theories and data, and theories at different levels of description.

Many people assume that the claims of scientists are objective truths. But historians, sociologists, and philosophers of science have long argued that scientific claims reflect the particular ...
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Many people assume that the claims of scientists are objective truths. But historians, sociologists, and philosophers of science have long argued that scientific claims reflect the particular historical, cultural, and social context in which those claims were made. The nature of scientific knowledge is not absolute because it is influenced by the practice and perspective of human agents. This book argues that the acts of observing and theorizing are both perspectival, and that this nature makes scientific knowledge contingent, as Thomas Kuhn theorized forty years ago. Using the example of color vision in humans to illustrate how his theory of “perspectivism” works, the author argues that colors do not actually exist in objects; rather, color is the result of an interaction between aspects of the world and the human visual system. He extends this argument into a general interpretation of human perception and, more controversially, to scientific observation, conjecturing that the output of scientific instruments is perspectival. Furthermore, complex scientific principles—such as Maxwell's equations describing the behavior of both the electric and magnetic fields—make no claims about the world, but models based on those principles can be used to make claims about specific aspects of the world. The book offers a solution to the most contentious debate in the philosophy of science over the past thirty years.Less

Scientific Perspectivism

Ronald N. Giere

Published in print: 2006-11-15

Many people assume that the claims of scientists are objective truths. But historians, sociologists, and philosophers of science have long argued that scientific claims reflect the particular historical, cultural, and social context in which those claims were made. The nature of scientific knowledge is not absolute because it is influenced by the practice and perspective of human agents. This book argues that the acts of observing and theorizing are both perspectival, and that this nature makes scientific knowledge contingent, as Thomas Kuhn theorized forty years ago. Using the example of color vision in humans to illustrate how his theory of “perspectivism” works, the author argues that colors do not actually exist in objects; rather, color is the result of an interaction between aspects of the world and the human visual system. He extends this argument into a general interpretation of human perception and, more controversially, to scientific observation, conjecturing that the output of scientific instruments is perspectival. Furthermore, complex scientific principles—such as Maxwell's equations describing the behavior of both the electric and magnetic fields—make no claims about the world, but models based on those principles can be used to make claims about specific aspects of the world. The book offers a solution to the most contentious debate in the philosophy of science over the past thirty years.

Princess Diana's death was a tragedy that provoked mourning across the globe; the death of a homeless person, more often than not, is met with apathy. How can we account for this uneven distribution ...
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Princess Diana's death was a tragedy that provoked mourning across the globe; the death of a homeless person, more often than not, is met with apathy. How can we account for this uneven distribution of emotion? Can it simply be explained by the prevailing scientific understanding? Uncovering a rich tradition beginning with Aristotle, this book offers a counterpoint to the way we generally understand emotions today. Through a radical rereading of Aristotle, Seneca, Thomas Hobbes, Sarah Fielding, and Judith Butler, among others, the book reveals a persistent intellectual current that considers emotions as psychosocial phenomena. In this historical analysis of emotion, Aristotle and Hobbes's rhetoric show that our passions do not stem from some inherent, universal nature of men and women, but rather are conditioned by power relations and social hierarchies. The book follows up with consideration of how political passions are distributed to some people but not to others using the Roman Stoics as a guide. Hume and contemporary theorists like Judith Butler, meanwhile, explain to us how psyches are shaped by power. To supplement this argument, the book also provides a history and critique of the dominant modern view of emotions, expressed in Darwinism and neurobiology, in which they are considered organic, personal feelings independent of social circumstances.Less

The Secret History of Emotion : From Aristotle's Rhetoric to Modern Brain Science

Daniel M. Gross

Published in print: 2006-05-15

Princess Diana's death was a tragedy that provoked mourning across the globe; the death of a homeless person, more often than not, is met with apathy. How can we account for this uneven distribution of emotion? Can it simply be explained by the prevailing scientific understanding? Uncovering a rich tradition beginning with Aristotle, this book offers a counterpoint to the way we generally understand emotions today. Through a radical rereading of Aristotle, Seneca, Thomas Hobbes, Sarah Fielding, and Judith Butler, among others, the book reveals a persistent intellectual current that considers emotions as psychosocial phenomena. In this historical analysis of emotion, Aristotle and Hobbes's rhetoric show that our passions do not stem from some inherent, universal nature of men and women, but rather are conditioned by power relations and social hierarchies. The book follows up with consideration of how political passions are distributed to some people but not to others using the Roman Stoics as a guide. Hume and contemporary theorists like Judith Butler, meanwhile, explain to us how psyches are shaped by power. To supplement this argument, the book also provides a history and critique of the dominant modern view of emotions, expressed in Darwinism and neurobiology, in which they are considered organic, personal feelings independent of social circumstances.

How do scientists persuade colleagues from diverse fields to cross the disciplinary divide, risking their careers in new interdisciplinary research programs? Why do some attempts to inspire such ...
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How do scientists persuade colleagues from diverse fields to cross the disciplinary divide, risking their careers in new interdisciplinary research programs? Why do some attempts to inspire such research win widespread acclaim and support, while others do not? This book addresses such questions through close readings of three scientific monographs in their historical contexts—Theodosius Dobzhansky's Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937), which inspired the “modern synthesis” of evolutionary biology; Erwin Schrödinger's What Is Life? (1944), which catalyzed the field of molecular biology; and Edward O. Wilson's Consilience (1998), a so far not entirely successful attempt to unite the social and biological sciences. The book examines the rhetorical strategies used in each book and evaluates which worked best, based on the reviews and scientific papers that followed in their wake.Less

Shaping Science with Rhetoric : The Cases of Dobzhansky, Schrodinger, and Wilson

Leah Ceccarelli

Published in print: 2001-07-01

How do scientists persuade colleagues from diverse fields to cross the disciplinary divide, risking their careers in new interdisciplinary research programs? Why do some attempts to inspire such research win widespread acclaim and support, while others do not? This book addresses such questions through close readings of three scientific monographs in their historical contexts—Theodosius Dobzhansky's Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937), which inspired the “modern synthesis” of evolutionary biology; Erwin Schrödinger's What Is Life? (1944), which catalyzed the field of molecular biology; and Edward O. Wilson's Consilience (1998), a so far not entirely successful attempt to unite the social and biological sciences. The book examines the rhetorical strategies used in each book and evaluates which worked best, based on the reviews and scientific papers that followed in their wake.

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